Or Forever Hold Your Peace
by Kiss And Make Up
Summary: oneshot. SPOILERS. Lorelai thinks she's finally on the right track to getting her life together. But is this spurofthemoment decision a good idea? Or is she about to make the biggest mistake of her life? Another last attempt to save the show story.


**SPOILERS**

**Do not read any further if you don't want to know. You have been warned**

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**A/N: So… Lorelai and Christopher elope? What the hell have the done to this show!? I think they sit in their little offices and come up with as many ways as they possibly can to ruin everything that the first four and a half seasons-you know, when it was still a good show- began. I really hate this show now, and I want to just stop watching it. But I can't. It's like a train wreck.**

**So anyway. I was thinking. The spoiler says they elope… but are they ever actually married? Maybe they get there and one of them changes their mind. Or maybe they have it annulled, like, the next day.**

**Well, a girl can dream, right? So this is my dream version of this absolutely horrendous plot.**

**P.S. I know it's getting a little late to be posting this, but I finished it a couple weeks ago, and right as I was about to post it, my dad blocked fanfiction on the firewall for no reason at all. I didn't even know that was possible. How rude! Well, anyway, better late than never--and here it is:**

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**Disclaimer: I don't own it. If I did, things would be a lot different on the show, you can be sure of that.**

Lorelai looked down at her hands entwined with those of the man standing next to her. He was holding on to them so tightly; she felt trapped. She wanted to reach up and tuck the stray piece of hair that was tickling her cheek back behind her ear, but she couldn't. She shook her head gently to try to move the flyaway strand, but that only resulted in a few more pieces falling out from under her cheap veil.

Finally deciding that it just wasn't worth the bother, she looked up into Christopher's eyes. She'd never seen him look so happy. So at peace with the world, as though he felt everything was finally right.

It _was_ right. This was right. This had to be right.

Maybe if she kept thinking it, she would finally feel it.

It _had_ to be right. He was the father of her only daughter for God's sake! Mothers and Fathers are supposed to be married. That's just how things were supposed to be. This was right.

She smiled back at her soon-to-be husband and felt the tears building in her eyes. Her first instinct was to fight them. She didn't want him to know what she was thinking. But then she quickly realized that it was normal, sometimes even expected, to cry a little on your wedding day. No one had to know what these tears were really for. Christopher would assume she was as ecstatic as he. This was her wedding day, after all. She should be happy.

They'd only been dating for a little over a month. That wasn't very long. Was this moving to fast? But they'd known each other nearly all their lives. This wasn't the first time they dated. Or even the second. Maybe she could look at it as though they had been dating since they were fourteen… with a couple of very long breaks. Yeah. That sounded better. So they'd been dating for over twenty years. That wasn't moving too fast at all.

She smiled wider, feeling better about the situation. This was her wedding day. She should be happy, so she was going to be happy, dammit!

Although… did an elopement really count as a wedding? There was hardly anyone in the room: just the preacher and Rory and Christopher's best man. And Lorelai and Chris, of course. Was this really a wedding? She looked at her scuffed heels that she had grabbed on her way out the door. Black. Not a wedding color. Her shirt was a pale blue and her beige skirt clashed slightly with the white veil they picked up at the small shop outside. The same small shop where they bought her and Rory's five-dollar bouquets. They were roses. Lorelai had never wanted roses at her wedding. They were so overrated. She preferred daisies, but roses were all they could find.

This was nothing like Lorelai imagined her wedding would be. So did an elopement really count as a wedding?

Well, she was "wed"ing the man standing at her side, so yes. This was a wedding. This was her wedding day. She should be happy.

She listened to the preacher prattle on about true love and marriage and eternity and felt Christopher give her hands an affectionate squeeze. She returned the gesture and tried to think back to previous weddings to determine where they were in the ceremony. If she was remembering correctly, it was nearly time for him to ask if anyone had any objections to their union.

If this were a cheesy movie, Luke would come barreling through the doors right as the preacher delivered those words and insist she not marry Christopher. Then he would step into Chris' place beside her and she would marry him instead and would live happily ever after. This was her wedding day, after all, and she should be happy. But she didn't need Luke to come through those doors to be happy, right? In fact, she didn't even want him to come through the doors. She was here to marry Christopher, and that's what she was going to do.

"… speak now or forever hold your peace." She heard the preacher say. Unconsciously, she turned her head and looked at the big wooden double-doors, not shocked when nobody came through them.

Not shocked… but maybe a little disappointed.

Or a lot disappointed.

Deep down, she really had hoped Luke would come and whisk her away to the wedding she had spent months planning earlier in the year. She had hoped Luke would insist she marry him instead of Christopher. She had hoped Luke still loved her.

The way she now knew she still loved him.

"Wait," she said. Christopher held onto her hands a little tighter, as if that could somehow prevent her from what he knew she was going to say next. As if holding her a little closer would blind her to the fact that she didn't love him. That she still loved Luke.

"I'm sorry, Christopher. I just… I can't."

She dropped his hands and turned to walk down the long aisle, not turning to see Christopher's crushed expression as the heavy doors closed behind her. Rory could take care of him. Right now she just had to get out of there.

So she ran.

She dropped the bouquet of roses, and threw the ill-fitting veil behind her and ran.

Lorelai Gilmore was not a runner, but she felt she could make an exception this once. After all, whoever heard of a _walk-_away bride?

She ran and ran, not even thinking about where she was going… until she realized where she was. Standing in front of Luke's Diner, hair almost completely out of its previously pristine position and heels now in her hands as it had become rather difficult to run in them. The diner was closed, but she could see a light on in his upstairs apartment. Reaching above the doorframe where she knew he kept the spare key, she let herself into the diner and crept back behind the curtain to knock on his door. It was time to talk.

Luke opened the door in confusion. How was anyone there? He should have realized it was her. She was the only one who knew where the key was. He stepped aside to let her in without saying a word, knowing that she would want to be the first to speak.

"I love you," she whispered. Luke's eyes widened at that. Whatever he had expected, it was certainly not a proclamation of her love. What was going on? "I love you," she repeated, "and I miss you."

"I miss you too." He admitted, afraid to admit to more for fear this may not end up where it seemed to be heading now.

"And I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pressured you to make a decision on the spot like that. It wasn't fair. Spontaneity is _my_ thing. It's not fair of me to expect the same of you. I just… I love you so much that it scares me. And I was afraid. I was afraid that maybe I wanted this more than you did. That maybe you didn't want it at all now that you have April and Anna."

"Oh, Lorelai!" Luke sighed. "You know I love you. I've loved you for years. I wanted to marry you long before we even started dating. It's not that I don't want that anymore now that I've got April… I just needed time. Finding out about a kid you never knew existed takes a lot of getting used to. My whole life changed, and I just needed to see how things fit together now. I still want to marry you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Lorelai Gilmore. I just still have to figure out where I stand with April. We waited for your daughter… can't we wait for mine?"

"Yes." Lorelai nodded frantically, thrilled to hear him say that he still loved her too. That he still wanted to marry her. "We absolutely can. We should. I was just… crazy. Temporarily more-insane-than-usual. With Lane getting married and everything, I was just… I'm sorry. But I'm ready now. I mean, I'm ready to wait now. If you still want me to wait for you. I love you, Luke."

Luke reached out and pulled her to him, bringing her in for a kiss that left no doubt in her mind as to what he wanted. He wanted her. And she wanted him too.

This was her wedding day, and she was finally happy.


End file.
